It was recently announced that Tiger Woods will return to the PGA for the Masters. I love to watch Tiger play golf, so I’m happy, but please hear me: the PGA was around long before Tiger and the PGA will go on long after Tiger. No one is irreplaceable.

This principle applies to church leadership as well. I don’t care how big the name, how great the personality or how gifted the communicator – all pastors are replaceable. Rick Warren could leave Saddleback and Saddleback would go on. Craig Groeschel could leave LifeChurch.tv and it would go on. Andy Stanley could leave North Point and it would go on. You get the picture.

This is a sign of good leadership and a church (local Body of Christ) that is not personality-driven and ego-centric. There are some churches (I’m not going to name them – that’s not the point of this) that would crumble if something happened to their senior pastor. That is a shame and a sign of poor leadership.

When I led the technical arts ministry at Bent Tree, I created and led a Technical Arts Leadership Team comprised mostly of volunteers. In our meetings I would stress to them the importance of them taking ownership in the ministry. I’ve blogged about that several times on this blog. I can distinctly remember saying to my leadership team numerous times that the ministry could not be “Greg-centric”. Now that I’m no longer at Bent Tree, this team (which was never built around me) continues to lead the ministry and make Sunday happen each week, as well as see that the team members are cared for.

Bent Tree was a great church before I came and they’re a great church without me. That’s the whole point. Nobody’s irreplaceable. I want to encourage you to lead in such a way that if something happened to you or God called you somewhere else, your current church would continue to thrive without you.

I (along with many others) was shocked yesterday to watch Tiger Woods lose a major. I’ve blogged before about how Tiger amazes me and the last 3 weeks for him have been nothing short of amazing. Friends, I am simply reminded that he is a real person and isn’t Superman – like I sometimes think of him.

I’m happy for Y. E. Yang and what it means for the first Asian to win a major, but I don’t feel that Tiger played his best and I’m disappointed with the outcome. So close, yet so far. He was bound to lose sometime, right?

There are few things I enjoy more than watching Tiger on the prowl. When Sunday comes and Tiger is anywhere close, it is the most fun thing in the world to watch him at work. Yesterday, my 3 kids and I cheered Tiger on to victory at the Memorial. Besides “Jesus” – who amazes you?

I had a revelation yesterday. My son and I were hanging out and watching basketball. He asked me who I watched when I was younger. I said, “the Bulls” and then it dawned on me that my son doesn’t know who Michael Jordan is. I was stunned. How can he not know who MJ is?

I asked him who the best player in basketball is and he said “Lebron James” – not bad, kid. Speaking of living legends, did you see Tiger Woods yesterday? Wow! What a finish! And of course: how about my Tarheels?

On a serious note, I once got to meet a true living legend. I was in the green room in the backstage of the worship center at Saddleback and met their guest speaker for the day: Brother Yun. If you don’t have his book, The Heavenly Man – you really ought to get it. It’s amazing. He’s an amazing man and a true “living legend”.

I am extremely honored and humbled to partner with these companies and thankful for their support of my ministry. I encourage you to check them out.

PERSONAL:
For the record: Tiger Woods is THE MAN! I don’t care if you call it a man-crush – maybe it is. I just know that if he’s playing and I turn to that channel – I can’t turn it off. I don’t care if they ever show the other golfers. I actually wish they wouldn’t – just keep the camera on Tiger, even when he’s walking to his next shot. All Tiger, all the time. I don’t need to see any other golfer on the screen. Take that, Phil M.!